Mattamy Homes Creates New Urbanism

Mattamy Homes is one of the largest privately owned builders in North America and is Canada’s largest new home construction and development firm, with operations across Canada and the United States. From the sale of just one home, Mattamy Homes has evolved into a leading homebuilding brand in North America with over 1,000 employees. Their core target markets include first-time buyers and moveupfamilies, as well as the empty-nester and second-home demographics.

Established in 1978 in Burlington, Ontario, Mattamy Homes Founder and CEO Peter Gilgan has built 70,000 homes in over 150 communities across North America. In Canada, those communities stretch across the Greater Toronto Area, as well as in Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton, while in the United States, the company is represented in seven metropolitan areas: Minneapolis-St. Paul, Charlotte, Phoenix, Tucson, Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa/ Sarasota. He also was awarded Outstanding Business Leader of the Year from Laurier’s School of Business and Economics, elected a Fellow (FCA) of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario and honored as a Champion for Public Education by The Learning Partnership.

“I studied home design concepts from all over North America and especially of a growing movement called New Urbanism. This new movement called for homes to be more individual in character and designed into friendlier communities with integrated green space and consideration given to people over cars,” saidGilgan. Mattamy Homes’ initial foray into New Urbanism resulted in community design with building lots configured by width not depth.

Located on 100 acres of Jim Johnson Road in West Cabarrus County, Castlebrooke is a distinctive community of homes in close proximity to perks throughout Charlotte, Huntersville and Concord. AtCastlebrooke, attention to streets was designed to curve gently and quiet cul-de-sacs were developed to calm traffic and provide natural space throughout the community. Homesites remain private by not backing into one another and instead overlook wooded common areas.

Castlebrooke is comprised of single family homes with 12 distinct floor plans located in West CabarrusCounty, North Carolina. The new Tudor-style Rose plan features a three car tandem garage, formal living room and dining room, loft and optional first f loor guest suite or study. In addition, is the award winning Periwinkle plan with a first floor master suite, flex room, loft and optional fourth bedroom or bonus room.Castlebrooke homes all feature nine foot tall ceilings with upgraded eight foot doors. Each home in this community is ENERGY STAR certified.

The entrance to the Periwinkle plan leads past a formal dining room and into the main living area of the home. A kitchen island with bar seating gives diversity to the dining options to the adjacent optional eating area. Pillars give an elegant touch when transitioning from dining to gathering room. The gathering room features a fireplace and long windows for ample light. The laundry room leads from the gathering room directly into the master suite where the master bath is complete with options for a separate jacuzzi bath and shower, chrome finishes and glass wall tiles. The second story features an open bonus room, two additional bedrooms, and a full bath.

Craftsman and Tudor inspired designs are showcased throughout Castlebrook in the estate series, starting at $267,990 and the manor series, starting at $218,000.

This community features several preserves, wetlands and creeks adding to the natural beauty and peaceful serenity of the neighborhood lined with hardwood trees. Additional amenities to the community include award winning schools, a community pool with playground and a cabana and fully woodedgreenspace. The community of Castlebrooke is close to I-85 and I-77 for easy commutes to employment hubs and major shopping centers.

There are a number of elements that combine to create a look that is unique, distinct and friendly. Design combined with superb construction creates an exterior that distinguishes itself and ref lects individuality.

The inside starts with a sense of space. “We want traffic to flow easily from place to place while creating airiness,” stated the website. This starts with a great design and is complemented with a large diversity in standard finishes and ornamental features.

Every home creates a distinct interior environment where there’s a place for everything and plenty of room to relax. “Driven entirely by the wants, needs and preferences of our customers, we undertake a very active listening campaign through market research before each new community is launched and before designing their homes,” said Gilgan. “Consumer feedback is closely integrated into how we design our homes, what we put into them and how we design the community.”
Attention to detail is important, so Mattamy Homes offers homeowners a great deal of choices to properly coordinate the home finishes and individualize each new home so the result is catered to the homeowner’s style. The first thing that is apparent when turning down a street of Mattamy Homes is the diverse architecture. Each home includes inviting front porches and homes with large windows allowing an abundance of natural light to enter in. The use of kitchen islands and media centers in the family room serve to make them natural gathering places and contribute to an organic feeling throughout the home. Fireplaces are tucked away so they do not intrude into a room or serve as an eyesore.

In addition, Mattamy Homes schedules a frame walk with the homeowners and Mattamy team to see where plugs, light switches and other rough-ins are being installed. “We continue to follow up long after homeowners have moved in,” said Gilgan.

Mattamy Homes has received several prestigious awards in North America for its homebuilding and customer service excellence, including: Home Builder of the Year in 2014, having received it seven times in the last decade; the JD Power Builder of Excellence Award in 2012 in Calgary; Avid Benchmark Awards in Calgary, Toronto, Orlando and Charlotte in the last three years; and the 2012 Avid Diamond Award in Jacksonville.

The scope of Mattamy’s operations encompasses land acquisition, community design and development, and housing and parkland design and construction, with particular emphasis on creating complete communities of enduring value to homeowners. Mattamy offers personalized homes in the most desired locations across a wide variety of demographics, price points, ages and stages in life.

Devon Douglas is the Assistant Editor for Builder and Developer magazine. She may be reached atdevon@penpubinc.com.